I know I’ve mentioned before that as a pre-teen/early teen, I was obsessed with the Spice Girls. I tried to dress like them for a good portion of grades 5-8.

‘Cos they were SO cool.

But don’t be fooled. I didn’t just want to look like them. I wanted to sound like them, too.

In grade five, we started a bit of a Spice Girls club. Meaning myself and four of my girlfriends got together and decided we were going to be the next Spice Girls. We would gather at recess, find a quiet corner of the school yard, and practice. Every day we sang different parts, but it was clear we each had favourites. From what I remember, I almost always sang either Ginger Spice or Sporty Spice’s* parts of the songs, but I fancied myself quite the impersonator singer – I had a “voice” for each one of them.

(When I was at home by myself, I would sing all five parts, and switch voices in between parts.)

(COOLEST KID EVER.)

And then there were the days we went public with our insane talent.

We could definitely replicate this as 11-12 year olds, right?

When the weather was nice, we would all get together after school and walk to my friend Jessica’s house, which was also only two blocks from my house. But we didn’t gather at my house, because my house didn’t have a big paved driveway. Jessica’s did. She would get her boom box out of her room, pop in a Spice Girls CD, and we would not only sing along, but also choreograph our “own” dance moves (see: the dance moves from the music videos). The driveway was our stage and we were going to be the Next Big Thing.

Then I think “Baby Spice” and “Scary Spice” got into a fight and we broke up. What are you gonna do?

Lessons learned:

(A) It would be nice to be brave enough to perform pop songs on a driveway again.

(B) Clearly I missed my calling as an international pop star.

(C) Or my calling as an impersonator.

(Maybe it’s not too late for me to become a female drag queen and get a show in Vegas…)

xA

*No one wanted to be Sporty Spice because she wasn’t “cute,” but I thought she was super cool, and no one wanted to be Ginger Spice because she was “fat,” but I thought she was the most beautiful of the Spice Girls.